


Board Games

by dracarysburns



Series: The Kara Lynn Palamas Files [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Kara & Ward Friendship, Self-Hatred, Slight Canon Divergence, Squint for Skyeward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 18:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3987709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracarysburns/pseuds/dracarysburns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Kara Lynn Palamas was her own person and she hated board games. </p><p>Or the one were Grant to teaches Kara how to play games.</p><p>**A series of related one-shots based on Kara Lynn Palamas**</p>
            </blockquote>





	Board Games

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place a few weeks before The Frenemy of my Enemy. 
> 
> **Canon diverge:
> 
> Grant and Kara are not together (in the romantic sense)  
> Bakshi is not in the trunk of Grant’s car  
> And Grant buys a shit ton of board games

Mexico

To say that Kara wasn’t a fan of board games would be a vastly huge understatement. She wasn’t sure why she hated them, at least that’s what she told Grant.

(Her mom explained that her sister use to put some of the  _Monopoly_  pieces into her soup to see if she would eat them. Or choke on them? But, honestly, she can’t remember most of her childhood or her sister for that matter. So she doesn’t bring it up.)

Grant being as pigheaded as he is, decided that he would teach her all the wonders of Milton Bradley's  _other_  board games. She still can’t believe that he spent his money on board games to begin with. The only game he refused to play or buy was  _Battleship_  and she doesn’t question his decision either.

(Mainly because playing  _Battleship_  or any game in 90 degree weather  _is_  an awful idea, even if Grant doesn’t agree with her. And then if Bakshi joins them—it’s just a disaster waiting to happen. She wonders if she was ever that pathetic when she was brainwashed by Whitehall.)

But Grant tells her why he can’t play the game. He was painfully honest that way.

It’s Skye, of course.

Kara found it amazing how much Grant could talk about Skye having only known the hacker for a brief period of time. But it wasn't just Skye, it’s his old team. Everything reminded him of them and nothing sets him off on a long tangent more than talking about  _them_. Even when he spoke about John, it was nothing compared to the affection that he show  _them_.

It was always Fitzsimmons this, and Coulson that, and May would kick this person’s ass, and Skye. Skye was above all else the epitome of good.

(Kara found it frustrating how much she had to compete with a girl who shot him several times, people who want him dead, or imprisoned for the rest of his life. Perhaps, it was her invisible scar has made him long for people who needed him more than her.)

But as she sat there listening to Grant’s talk about Skye beating him for the nth billionth time. Kara wonder if he actually cared that she was never going to be Skye.

“But you probably don’t want hear this,” he concluded and she shook her head.

She didn’t, but she could exactly tell him that. It would crush him.

“There is nothing wrong with missing them,” she says softly, “I wish I had an anecdote on how a board game connects to someone I cared about. Bobbi and Whitehall took that from me.”

(She’d give anything to remember all of it, even the worst bits.)

“I hurt them,” he says almost as quietly, “I sank Fitz-Simmons at the bottom of an ocean, I knew Coulson was being tortured, I… Maybe it was easier when I didn’t feel anything.”

She doesn’t say, maybe it was all John’s fault. She doesn’t say, if he was raised by different people things might be better for him. Maybe they’d teach him that compassion was not a weakness and loving someone doesn’t mean you have to hurt other people.

What she does say is “Of course it’s easier not to feel anything, but you’re not actually a robot, Grant. Despite, the bad things you’ve done, you are not a bad person. No one can tell me differently. Just look at what you’ve done for me, even when you didn’t have to.”

He chuckle. “I thought it was the other way around and you saved me?”

“We saved each other and we will get our closure someday. Now, why don’t we play  _Life_  instead? We can make Bakshi be the banker or something.”

Kara knows he’s grateful for the change in conversation, she is too. She not in love with Grant Ward, but she grateful to have him in her life. If anything, they hold on to each because no one else cares about them.

It was Grant and Kara versus everyone else.

(So if he wanted to pretend like everything was fine, than she would indulge him for an hour or two. But after that Bakshi would have to play with Grant because she doesn’t have that much patience.)


End file.
